Immigrants Of The Day: John Duddy of Northern Ireland, Jin Kyu Robertson of Korea, and Juan Hernández-Campos of Mexico

John Francis Duddy (born June 19, 1979, Derry, Northern Ireland) is a middleweight boxer. Duddy currently boxes out of New York City as Ireland's John Duddy or The Derry Destroyer. For a short documentary about Duddy, click here.

Duddy has won all of his professional bouts, 17 by knockout with 9 of those knockouts in the first round. Last night, Duddy won a unanimous decision over rugged Matt Vanda in a fight at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto/Michael Jennings main event.

Commited to the Irish community, Duddy has been involved with the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), which has a website that on its froont page states that "Under the current immigration system, neither Ronald Reagan or John F. Kennedy's Irish ancestors or relatives could come to America legally today."

Duddy once posed a question on immigration to Arizona Senator John McCain, a former navy boxer, at a group rally. Duddy entered the ring in a March 16, 2006 fight wearing an ILIR t-shirt.

Jin Kyu Robertson immigrated to the United States as a housemaid when she was 22. From modest beginnings, she rose to the rank of major in the U.S. Army and earned a doctorate at Harvard.

Jin Robertson was the child of a tavern owner, and neither of her parents ever attended school. Because her family lacked money for college, she worked in a factory and as a waitress and housemaid in Korea. One day, she saw a newspaper ad for a housemaid position in America. She applied for the job, over her family's objections. Little more than 10 years later, Robertson was a U.S. army officer stationed in Germany. The Army allowed her to continue her college studies and she eventually beaome an officer. Robertson represented the U.S. Army as liaison to the Japanese Self Defense Forces, the first woman to hold that position.

Robertson kept her focus on education and completed a master's degree at Harvard University in East Asian studies, and enrolled in a doctoral program, focusing on relations among the United States, Korea and Japan. After retiring from the Army as a Major, she returned to Harvard to finish her Ph.D.

Our Immigrant of the Day is Juan Hernández-Campos, an undocumented engineering student, who completed his first semester at Harvard University. New America Media reports that he has been awarded a $50,000 per year scholarship to complete his studies.

Hernandez-Campos was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and crossed the border nine years ago to be with his father, who works as a bricklayer in Los Angeles. He was accepted at 15 universities, seven 7 of which offered him full scholarships.

These posts were orginally posted on the ImmigrationProf Blog here, here and here.

About The Author

Kevin R. Johnson is currently Dean, Professor of Law and Chicana/o Studies, and the Mabie-Apallas Public Interest Law Chair holder at the University of California at Davis. He is also one of the editors of ImmigrationProf Blog.

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ILW.COM.